ESC: Short term volunteering in Vukovar, Croatia

Youth peace group Danube is non-profit, non-governmental organization acting primarily in the area of city Vukovar, in Vukovar - SIrmium County , and also in Osijek Baranja County through partnership cooperation. Missions and goals of Youth peace group Danube are promoting the work of young people, also emancipation, individualism and personal freedoms of citizens throughout various programmes that facilitates personal development of an individual. The goals are achieved through activation, motivation and improvement of potential of individuals including certain social groups for the benefit of community which affirms and encourages creativity and active engagement of youth and children in all the areas of social life. Our primer target groups are children, youth, minorities and vulnerable social groups. Our secondary target groups are women, elders, national minorities, refugees, displaced persons, local government, entrepreneurs, unemployed persons, educational institutions, families and persons in risk of poverty. In meeting our goals we base our work on conducting youth programmes in the field of culture and arts, international cooperation and development, informal education of youth, and also programmes in which young people themselves are included in activities as users but also volunteers, which contributes to the development of local community. In addition, our 22-year long experience in youth work, contacts and cooperation with national and international organizations and networks in conducting projects is successfully reflecting on total social engagement of youth in all the areas of community acting. Activities we conduct are improving the lives of citizens and community alltogether, and some of them are; Youth Club, campaigns and researches, youth programes (“Youth for elder”, “Youth for children”,”Youth for youth”), seminars, workshops, trainings, camps, activities regarding culture and arts such as exhibitions, and also contemporary art; graffiti workshops, dance workshops, music and street activities. We also conduct IT programes that include STEM education, specifically programming, robotics, but also other beginner friendly activities. One of our goals is promotion of volunteering, for which we were awarded in 2001. with “Heart print” award and recognized by the government of Croatia for empowerment and volunteering development. Activities that we conduct, based on the community needs research are- creative workshops, educational workshops (digital and IT softskills, learning assistance...), social activities (sports events, exhibitions, book and poetry nights, intercultural evenings...), social actions- work and educational camps. We base all our activities on community needs; a need for socializing, entertainment, activism, education, safe environment, mobility, cultural exchanges, solidarity... Those activities develop a sense of contribution to the community, and also transfer cultural differencies which at the end strenghtens the youth capacity of our community.